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1.01 | A Contract-Tiered Baseball League (ACTBALL) will consist of two leagues, the American and National Leagues. Each league will consist of 12 teams, broken down into 3 divisions of 4 teams each. |
1.02 | Retention of players is based upon a contract system, outlined in section 4 below. |
1.03 | The season will be 162 games, from April through September. |
1.04 | Season play will be pure; the American League teams will only play other American League teams, the National League teams will play only other National League teams. Teams will play more games against their division opponents than they will against opponents in the other 2 division in their league. |
1.05 | Joining and playing in the league is free; there are no dues or other charges. |
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2.01 | ACTBALL is an APBA Baseball simulation game, using all features within. |
2.02 | The use of the Designated Hitter will mirror MLB rules; all leagues will use the DH. |
2.03 | MicroManagers are required for all road series where the visiting manager is not personally (in person, via internet, or otherwise) managing his team. Any micromanager may be used and must also be provided by the visiting manager if not commonly available to the league. |
2.04 | Owners are responsible for declaring their team's MicroManager and providing a copy to League Management to be posted on the league website so all can access. In the event that a team fails to designate a MicroManager, Buck Miller IV will be used. |
2.05 | Owners may play live if and whenever possible; however it is not a requirement and both managers must agree. Otherwise the visiting manager will have their team managed by their designated MicroManager. |
2.06 | Ballpark effects will not be used. |
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3.01 | Major League rosters consist of 40 players during the season. No team may carry fewer than 40 players at any time. It is each team's responsibility to keep enough carded players on the 40 man roster to provide full seasonal coverage at all offensive positions as well as pitching. |
3.02 | Addionally, each tream will have a 5-man inactive roster. Teams may place any players on the inactive roster, including retired players, suspended players and injured players in addition to carded players. Contracts for these players remain in effect and count toward the team contract pool while on the inactive roster. Players can be reinstated to the 40 man roster the following year, or retained on the inactive roster until their contract expires. |
3.03 | A 27-man roster is used for each series and may be changed from series to series. It may not be changed in the middle of a series. |
3.04 | Active rosters may be expanded to the full 40-man limit after game #132 of the season has been played. |
3.05 | Players who did not play in the current season (previously carded players) may be retained. These players will be designated with "IR". They may not be used in games under any circumstances. IR players count against the 40 man roster limit (unless placed on the 5 man inactive roster). |
3.06 | At no time can teams ever exceed 40 active players under contract. Drafted players must be either assigned a contract or released by March 1st each year. |
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4.01 | Each team has a Contract Term Pool of 130 years. At no time can this limit be exceeded. There is also a floor of 90 years that all teams must meet from September 1st through the end of the ACTBALL season. |
4.02 | Each player's contract term counts against their total team contract pool. A player with a 5 year contract will count as 5 towards the 130 each of the 5 years. |
4.03 | Players may be signed to two different types of contracts in ACTBALL:
Short Term Contracts (STC): Contracts of one or two years are short term contracts. Short term contracts are non-renewable. Upon expiration of the STC the player becomes a free agent and will be included in the next annual draft pool.
Long Term Contracts (LTC): Contracts of 3 years and longer are long term contracts. Long term contracts are renewable per the rules set forth in this document. Players with expiring LTC's that are not renewed by the contract owner are free agents and included in the next annual draft pool. |
4.04 | Restricted Free Agent (RFA): When a long term contract expires, the player automatically becomes a restricted free agent (RFA).
The "RFA Draft" will take place, where one of the following will occur for each player:
a. No one offers the RFA a contract. The owner can choose to renew their contract for the last contract's same terms, or let the player become an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA). These players will go into the annual draft pool.
b. If a player receives a bid, they are guaranteed to be re-signed to a new contract. Other teams may make counter offers of greater value; greater value can be longer length of contract, same length of of contract plus a draft pick, or longer length of contract plus a draft pick.
c. At the conclusion of the bidding, owners of RFAs that did not receive bids must choose to re-sign the player or let them become a UFA. Owners are able to match offers on their RFA players; if no draft picks are involved they can offer the same amount of term (years). In these instances, it's considered a tie bid and a random dice roll will determine which team the player picks. Owners may also beat the best RFA offer outright to retain the player for the new contract terms.
d. If a draft pick is involved when matching/beating a bid on a team's RFA, the owning team must beat the number of years to retain the player. If the owner of the expired contract does not match the bid, the contract and player becomes the property of the winning bidder. If a draft pick is part of the bid these picks are awarded to the team losing the RFA player (viewed as a compensatory pick).
e. When comparing bids, the first tiebreaker is the term (number of years). The highest term will always win. If two or more teams bid the same term, then draft picks are used as the second tiebreaker (the 55th overall pick beats the 56th, etc).
f. When a team makes a bid on an RFA, it is considered binding. The bid cannot be retracted. This is to prevent teams from overbidding on players to drive up player contract retention costs and making bids they cannot honor. |
4.05 | The RFA bid period will take place between the end of the playoffs and the beginning of the annual draft each off-season. |
4.06 | All RFA decisions are private. Teams must submit their sealed decisions to the commissioner when requested. This is to ensure that no team has an advantage over another by seeing other decisions before making their own. Decisions are binary (yes/no) and cannot be contingent on other factors/decisions. |
4.07 | If a player under an ACTBALL contract dies in real life, he may be released by the owning team in the off-season at no penalty. The contract is considered null and void and the owner has no further contractual obligation. |
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5.01 | AIM will be used to manage all batting and pitching limits. |
5.02 | Pitchers without a starting grade cannot start unless absolutely required due to injury. Any pitcher may be used in relief. |
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6.01 | Players are limited to 150% of their actual steal attempts. League management will be responsible for judging violations and levying fines if deemed appropriate. Teams may request that their player's steal rating be set to N-0 between series during the regular season. |
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7.01 | A player may play at a non-rated position only when the starting and all rated backup players for that position have been injured, ejected, or substituted. Pinch-hitting or pinch running for the last available rated player at a position is allowed only from the 9th inning on. |
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8.01 | AIM will be used to manage all injuries. |
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9.01 | All games will be played in Domed stadiums to prevent rainouts. |
9.02 | Any results submitted with rainouts will be rejected. Owners may replay the rained out games (time permitting) or the rained out games will be simmed. No games will be rescheduled due to rainouts. |
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10.01 | Each manager must provide an f-file at the beginning of the season, designating team pitching rotation, roster, and lineups to be use for road games. This file may be changed after each series. |
10.02 | The 27-man active roster for each series must include a minimum of 2 rated players for each defensive position and a minimum of 5 rated players for the outfield. Each roster and lineup must have a minimum of 4 pitchers (may be rated relievers or starters with available relief appearances and innings) available for relief, and 4 starting pitchers, 3 of which are ineligible to pitch (resting). |
10.03 | Managers must email their f-file results to the Groups.io email account in a timely fashion upon the conclusion of each series. No series is official until the league statistician has validated the f-file. |
10.04 | It is each manager's responsibility to notify league management in advance if they will not be able to play their current series. |
10.05 | Due to the depth of the league and high degree of competition desired and expected, it is each owner's responsibility to actively manage their roster and play their games. Teams will accrue progressive penalties for delinquency and/or negligence in turning in their game results. The penalties are as follows:
1st two violations - no penalty
3rd violation - lose 3rd round pick
4th violation - lose 2nd round pick
5th violation -
6th violation - dismissal from the leaguelose 1st round pick
If a team is dismissed for such a reason, all previously forfeited picks will be reinstated for the incoming owner.
Owners are able to request a sim in advance without penalty. |
10.06 | Any manager who becomes AWOL after thirty (30) days, without having made prior arrangements with the commissioner, may be immediately terminated at the discretion of the commissioner. |
10.07 | Pitching rotations are to be scheduled for a minimum of the upcoming series. Managers are responsible to manage their rotation so that starters will be available (Rested or Ready status) for their scheduled starts. |
10.08 | No team may begin play until their season-opening f-file (with pitching rotation, roster, and lineups) is on file with the league statistician. |
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11.01 | The 3 division champions and the team remaining with the next best won-loss record ("Wildcard") will advance to the post-season in each league. The division winner with the best won-loss record will play the playoff team with the worst won-loss record in the first round; the 2 playoff teams with the 2nd and 3rd best records also play. The Division Playoff, League Championship Series, and World Series will be best-of-seven (7) games, played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format. |
11.02 | Wildcard and/or divisional ties will be broken by a one-game playoff, at the home of the team with the better record in head-to-head play. In the event of a head-to-head tie, the next tie-breaker used will be divisional record. If still tied, a coin flip by the commissioner will determine the home field. |
11.03 | Division winners have home field advantage over wildcard teams throughout the playoffs. |
11.04 | The World Series home team will be the team with the best regular season record. In the event of a tie, the following criteria will be used to break the tie: 1) Best road record 2) Most runs scored 3) Fewest sims 4) Coin flip. |
11.05 | Injuries from the season will NOT carry over into the playoffs. Any injuries sustained in the playoffs will carry through the rest of the playoffs. |
11.06 | Player fatigue from the regular season will carry over into the playoffs. |
11.07 | Playoff rosters will be 26 players and must be declared before the start of the playoffs. |
11.08 | Playoff rosters may be changed between series; changes to the roster during an actively played series are not allowed. |
11.09 | Only starting pitchers with 50 or more innings pitched, and relievers with 25 or more innings pitched are eligible for post-season play. To start a game in the post-season, a pitcher must have 50 or more innings pitched. |
11.10 | Innocuous batters (OPS < .600) and pitchers (Grade 1-4, MBF 1000) are eligible for the post-season regardless of their actual MLB at-bat and innings totals. |
11.11 | DH will be used for all post-season games. |
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12.01 | A voluntary Awards Committee will be formed at the end of the season to vote on league MVP, Cy Young, ROY, Fireman of the Year, All-Stars, Gold Gloves, and Silver Sluggers. Any owner that wishes to participate may join the Awards Committee. |
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13.01 | An annual draft of available players (unowned carded players) will be conducted each year on a date determined by the commissioner (approximately early January). The draft will be held via the league Draft Website and the number of rounds will be flexible to ensure teams can draft enough players to cover for expiring contracts and injuries. |
13.02 | All unaffiliated players on the new APBA data disk are eligible for the draft. Uncarded players may not be drafted. |
13.03 | The draft order will be set in the inverse order of the final standings. The 17-24 positions of the rookie draft are set based on playoff finish. The World Series winner will be assigned position 24, the World Series loser will be assigned position 23. The LCS losers will be assigned positions 21 and 22, with the team with the worse regular season record getting the 21st position. Positions 17 through 20 will be filled by the four playoff teams that lost in the divisional round, slotted by regular season record, from worst (position 17) to best (position 20). In the event of ties for any position, the playoff tiebreaker rules will be applied. |
13.04 | Draft picks may be traded at any time, including during the actual draft. |
13.05 | Instructions, draft order, and a list of eligible players will be distributed prior to the draft. |
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14.01 | Trades can take place at any time during the season, with the exception of short roster freeze periods that will be announced by league management. Trades must not violate roster or contract restrictions for either team. |
14.02 | No trades are official until reported by both managers to the League Management for confirmation. Trades will be reported to the league in a timely manner via the website and mailing list. |
14.03 | Draft picks for the next upcoming (or current, if in progress) annual draft are the only draft picks permitted in trades. |
14.04 | In the event that collusion or other unfair/unethical is suspected, League Management will form a Trade Committee of 5 owners (picked at random) to review the trade in question. If a majority of the Trade Committee feels that there is a breach of ethics and fair play the trade will be overturned. The Trade Committee will be instructed to only consider foul play and an obvious attempt to cheat; the trade being subjectively uneven is not grounds in and of itself to nullify the trade. |
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15.01 | Prior to the season, the commissioner (or his delegate) will perform adjustments to various AIM player ratings. |
15.02 | Innocuous batters (OPS < .600) with an injury rating of J-3 or J-4 will have it adjusted to J-2. |
15.03 | Any batters with a Season Factor (SF) less than 100 will have it normalized to 100. This will reduce the player's PR as a result (e.g. a 1000/60 player will become a 600/100 player). With SF=100, the player will no longer be "games-limited" in their usage. |
15.04 | Pitchers with a grade of 1, 2, 3, or 4 will have their Maximum Batters Faced (MBF) set to 1000. |
15.05 | Grade 1-4 starting pitchers will have their injury rating set to J-2 and their Durability rating set to 2. This will result in their MRR being calculated to 35 and RF to 9. |
15.06 | Grade 1-4 relievers will have their injury rating set to J-0 and their Durability rating set to 1. This will result in their MRR being calculated to 18 and RF to 7. |
15.07 | Split grade pitchers with both grades 4 or under will have their injury rating set to J-1 and their Durability rating set to 2 as a starter and 1 as a reliever. |
15.08 | If a split grade pitcher has either grade greater than 4, they will not receive any AIM adjustments. |
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16.01 | All rule changes to the ACTBALL Constitution must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the voting managers. |
16.02 | New additions to the constitution must receive majority approval. |
16.03 | Any league manager may submit rule proposals. |
16.04 | Voting on rule proposals/charter modifications for the following season will take place within 30 days after the playoffs are completed. No in-season modifications to the charter will be permitted. |
